LOOKING BACK

10-20-40-100 YEARS AGO

100 YEARS AGO....

For the second time in two weeks an area woman was killed when a mule team spooked. The 55-year-old woman died when the team pulling the wagon in which she was riding panicked on the McCowen Bridge over the Little River.

Williamson County remained “wet” in a prohibition election, with the 500-vote margin coming from the city of Taylor.

J. M. Rutherford brought in the first cotton bale of 1913 and claimed a $40 prize.

Work began on the new First Presbyterian Church, Davilla at San Gabriel, which would include a full basement. (This is also the former Peace Lutheran Church.)

FORTY YEARS AGO....

A contract signing with BFW Construction of Temple marked the formal start of construction on the new 47-bed Richards Memorial Hospital.

Units from Rockdale and Lexington VFD’s battled a blaze that gutted a practically new home in the Forest Grove community.

The 1973 Rockdale Roping & Cutting Club Youth Rodeo had signed up a record 259 contestants for the five night event.

New RHS head football coach Fred Johnson signed up two assistants, Dick Wiegand and Lew Simmonds, both of whom had coached with Johnson at Angleton.

TWENTY YEARS AGO....

Rockdale volunteer firefighters were alerted to an explosion and fire “south of Milano” and it was indeed south of that town. It was in Somerville. The night-time gas pipeline rupture was visible from a large part of Central Texas.

The Texas Employment Commission was assisting 117 laid-off Alcoans from Rockdale Operations, as the local smelter had cut back from eight potlines to 2-1/2.

State Rep. Dan Kubiak ( D- Rockdale) attached an amendment to an appropriations bill designed to stop the controversial “bullet train” plan.

Coach Ricky Ray expected 100 hopefuls to show up for the first practice of two-a-days for his defending District 21AAA co-champions.

TEN YEARS AGO....

P r ivate Ja son C ooper of Thorndale participated in the raid which resulted in the deaths of Saddam Hussein’s sons, Uday and Qusay.

The 2002 annexation of 653 acres at the western Rockdale city limits helped boost taxable values by almost 10 percent.

High winds from a fast-movi ng thunderstorm ripped through an area south of Rockdale, claiming two greenhouses at Tanglewood Plants.

There would be no emergency services district ballot during the November general election as a petition drive to obtain signatures for such an election fell short of its goal.